County to hold hearing on missed revaluation BY JAMIE ROMM Staff Writer MIDDLETOWN - The Monmouth County Tax Board is considering whether to take disciplinary action against the township tax assessor for missing the deadline for submitting data from a property revaluation. According to county TaxAdministrator Matthew S. Clark, the hearing will take place on April 9 at 10 a.m. in Freehold. The board will discuss whether any disciplinary decisions should be made regardingMiddletown TaxAssessor Charles Heck. According to Clark, the hearing would be of a formal nature and the board regards the matter as serious. Mayor Gerard Scharfenberger addressed the issue after a question was brought up at a neighborhood meeting in Fairview Elementary School onMarch 13. "It has become a statewide phenomenon especially with the plummeting property values and how they affect the revaluations," Scharfenberger said. "We are not the only one in this type of situation. Wall Township also had some issues." According to Clark, Heck said in a statement to the board that after an "extended review and consultation," he concluded that the revaluation program could not have been completed on time "with the appropriate data compilation required for an accurate product by the deadline." Clark said that may be the source of the problem. "This summarizes all of my concerns," Clark said. "The assessor concluded some time in December to stop the process, even though data indicates progress stopped sometime in mid-November." Clark said previously that he could not recall an instance in the last 16 years when a municipality appeared to be positioned to comply with a stated order and has chosen not to submit the revised assessments. In February, Township Attorney Bernard Reilly and Heck appeared before the board to explain the missed deadline. At the time, Clark said that for a township to miss its revaluation would mean that "A failure to submit a tax list which reflects a district-wide revaluation in accordance with the date prescribed in the revaluation order is most often due to a failure to have the tax maps or subsequent revaluation contract approved by the state in a timeframe that provides sufficient time to perform the overall revaluation process." Middletown's last reassessment was carried out in 1991; its previous revaluation took place in 1982, according to Reilly. As part of the meeting in February, the commissioners instructed Clark to investigate the matter further and report his findings along with recommendations at their next meeting on March 10. Among the reasons given at the February meeting for the delay in submitting revaluation data, according to Reilly, was the fact that the township is very large, with more than 25,000 taxable properties/ line items, meaning it would take a longer time for a revaluation to be carried out than in most municipalities. He also listed difficulties in getting appropriate sales data in the "unique state market" as a factor in the delay. The township's tax base growth has been steady with a 2006 assessed value of all taxable property at $4.9 billion, representing a 2 percent increase since 2003. Clark said the he could not recall an instance in the last 16 years where a municipality appeared to be positioned to comply with a stated order and had chosen not to submit the revised assessments. Realty Appraisal Co. ofWest New York was retained to carry out the revaluation. Deputy Mayor Pamela Brightbill said at last week's meeting that they have built in with their contract with Realty Appraisal a five-year window once the revaluation is completed if property values drastically change once again. "If prices drop again, we have built in that they would do another reassessment," Brightbill said. "That way we are not caught off-guard." Clark said that there is no penalty at this time for the missed filing, and the effect on the residents ofMiddletown will be the assessments remaining the same. Scharfenberger said there will not be any fines or punishments at the township level for the missed revaluation but the tax assessor may be in some trouble. "I know that we won't see a fine or anything," Scharfenberger said. "But Charlie may have to deal with them." The township and Heck will have to wait until April 9 to find out their fate.